Muncie vs. Canada for jobs

MUNCIE -- The headline from the London (Ontario) Free Press is striking: "London versus Muncie."

The comments on the online story are even more startling: Mixed with criticism of the labor-management standoff that has some workers worried Caterpillar will move hundreds of jobs from Canada to Muncie are bitter indictments of Muncie, the wages paid here and Mayor Dennis Tyler, who, like other officials, finds himself in a delicate balancing act: Who wouldn't be pleased at the prospect of additional work and potentially hundreds of jobs at Caterpillar's Progress Rail plant in Muncie?

But Tyler and other officials quoted in a story in last Sunday's Star Press -- the first local report on the Canadian labor standoff that might bring jobs here -- can't break out the noisemakers. Muncie has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs in recent decades. Celebrating another city's misfortune -- even if it means good news for us -- is a delicate thing.